The Glaciers of the Alps Being a narrative of excursions and ascents, etc.By: John Tyndall (1820-1893)

First Page:

[Illustration: THE MER DE GLACE
Showing the Cleft Station at Trélaporte, les Echelets, the Tacul, the
Périades and the Grande Jorasse.]

THE
GLACIERS OF THE ALPS.

BEING
A NARRATIVE OF EXCURSIONS AND ASCENTS,

AN ACCOUNT OF THE ORIGIN AND PHENOMENA OF GLACIERS,

AND
AN EXPOSITION OF THE PHYSICAL PRINCIPLES
TO WHICH THEY ARE RELATED.

BY JOHN TYNDALL, F.R.S.

WITH ILLUSTRATIONS.

NEW EDITION.

LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO.
LONDON, NEW YORK, AND BOMBAY.
1896.

All rights reserved

TO
MICHAEL FARADAY,
THIS BOOK
IS AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED.

1860.

PREFACE.

In the following work I have not attempted to mix Narrative and Science,
believing that the mind once interested in the one, cannot with
satisfaction pass abruptly to the other. The book is therefore divided
into Two Parts: the first chiefly narrative, and the second chiefly
scientific.

In Part I. I have sought to convey some notion of the life of an Alpine
explorer, and of the means by which his knowledge is acquired. In Part
II. an attempt is made to classify such knowledge, and to refer the
observed phenomena to their physical causes.

The Second Part of the work is written with a desire to interest
intelligent persons who may not possess any special scientific culture.
For their sakes I have dwelt more fully on principles than I should have
done in presence of a purely scientific audience. The brief sketch of
the nature of Light and Heat, with which Part II. is commenced, will
not, I trust, prove uninteresting to the reader for whom it is more
especially designed.

Should any obscurity exist as to the meaning of the terms Structure,
Dirt bands, Regelation, Interference, and others, which occur in Part
I., it will entirely disappear in the perusal of Part II.

Two ascents of Mont Blanc and two of Monte Rosa are recorded; but the
aspects of nature, and other circumstances which attracted my attention,
were so different in the respective cases, that repetition was scarcely
possible.

The numerous interesting articles on glaciers which have been published
during the last eighteen months, and the various lively discussions to
which the subject has given birth, have induced me to make myself better
acquainted than I had previously been with the historic aspect of the
question. In some important cases I have stated, with the utmost
possible brevity, the results of my reading, and thus, I trust,
contributed to the formation of a just estimate of men whose labours in
this field were long anterior to my own.

J. T.

Royal Institution, June, 1860.

PREFATORY NOTE.

"Glaciers of the Alps" was published nearly six and thirty years ago,
and has been long out of print, its teaching in a condensed form having
been embodied in the little book called "Forms of Water." The two books
are, however, distinct in character; each appears to me to supplement
the other; and as the older work is still frequently asked for, I have,
at the suggestion of my husband's Publishers, consented to the present
reprint, which may be followed later on by a reprint of "Hours of
Exercise."

Before reproducing a book written so long ago, I sought to assure myself
that it contained nothing touching the views of others which my husband
might have wished at the present time to alter or omit. With this object
I asked Lord Kelvin to be good enough to read over for me the pages
which deal with the history of the subject and with discussions in which
he himself took an active part. In kind response he writes: "... After
carefully going through all the passages relating to those old
differences I could not advise the omission of any of them from the
reprint. There were, no doubt, some keen differences of opinion and
judgement among us, and other friends now gone from us, but I think the
statements on controversial points in this beautiful and interesting
book of your husband's are all thoroughly courteous and considerate of
feelings, and have been felt to be so by those whose views were
contested or criticised in them... Continue reading book >>